Greater Milwaukee Men

This is typical of an anti-gluten-free meme that is almost more popular than the diet itself Two of my goals here at GMM are to increase awareness and sensitivity to others so that we can all live together better and also to increase awareness of ourselves - our physical, mental, and spiritual health - since we need to care for ourselves before we can properly care for others. To me they go hand-in-hand, they are essentially two sides of the same coin, as so often happens, the other shoe drops and we can unknowingly end up personally, or through a family member or friend, connected to an issue. In recent years my family has gone to a mostly grain-free diet, and as time passes I meet more and more people who have been recommended to do so as well, so I am going to start using this space, under the tag of GF for not just gluten- but also grain-free, to post my experiences and recipes with this type of diet. If you find yourself on this track, I hope it will be a place where yo...

Though I usually try to keep things upbeat here and celebrate men doing good, and I also stay away from political and religious issues, there are times when I need to draw attention to an issue and try to inspire men to help fix it. Now is one of those times. There are many upsetting things right now: the state of the Packers, the impending end of motorcycling season - not to mention real issues like racial relations, the fate of Syrian refugees, and gun ownership. But there is one issue that is looming above all the others for me right now: sexual harassment and assault. It seems like we can't go more than a week without a new story about sexual assault, sometimes multiple reports per week, involving college students, professional athletes, fathers, police, and yes even a presidential candidate. Its ironic, in the worst sense of the word, that while our current president created an initiative to bring attention to the issue, a man who wants to be president is the very subject ...

Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and Bronson Koenig In recent weeks, two athletes of Wisconsin teams, one pro one college, have taken very different actions to show support for the rights of their people. Both of these stories are now 'old' as it concerns news cycles, a few weeks having passed, but they both remain relevant to the state of the nation. Packers Ha Ha Clinton-Dix decided to pursue a degree in Criminal Science to try to resolve the issues between police and the black community and Badgers basketball player Bronson Koenig went to North Dakota to join in on Native American protests of the Dakota Access oil pipeline .

We are almost inured at this point, to professional athletes doing crazy, inappropriate, even illegal things, so its always great to see them being leaders off as well as on-field. Packers QB Aaron Rodgers has shown to be one of the 'good guys' with things like his It's Aaron  program. This week he showed once again that he is a leader off the field, making a surprise appearance on Ellen DeGeneres' TV show on Monday to thank someone else doing an amazing thing. In a pre-taped video message, Rodgers surprised a teacher from Madison, Wis., who is donating a kidney to her 4-year-old student. Beth Battista is scheduled to donate a kidney to Lyla Carreyn in February. You can watch the segment below.